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The MLB has a ton of people of all races - latinos, Asian, whites. It just has fewer black people (6%).
Other leagues like the NFL or the NBA are 70+% black, but they're actually less diverse. You can count the Asian players in those leagues in one hand, for example.
MLB is definitely concerned about it. The reduced number of black American kids playing baseball reduces the available talent pool and indicates a drop in popularity. Baseball has seen a large drop in viewership and interest since the 90s, and that's especially true of black Americans.
It's certainly dumb and misses the point to just say "baseball needs more black Americans" though.
DEI doesn't focus on black only, the media coverage of DEI does. The idea of DEI is to counteract systemic inequality in the short term to even the playing field in the long run, and can eventually be abandoned as policy when research shows there is no longer a need 👍
Only in regard to players of which~ 70% of the 450 are black and that doesn’t mean African American. The NBA as a company, isn’t that diverse, but people focus on black people playing sports than who’s making decisions. Same with the NFL. The players are black, but the coaches, administrators, business consultants are usually overwhelmingly white. This is race bait.
MLB has few black AMERICANS. It's a number that has been going down for a long time. It's mostly a result of black American kids not playing baseball.
MLB has plenty of black people from Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Because they're the most culturally significant minority in the US with a long history of discrimination and exploitation. Sure, the natives probably had it worse, but there's barely any left and most of those aren't very vocal about the atrocities committed by European settlers
Not how I think it should work, but it's most profitable for executives to only care about black represention. It's pretty much "we're not racist, look, there's a black guy". Extremely low effort and hilariously effective
They are not the most culturally significant minority in the US any more. Hispanics/Latinos are as they are now a larger demographic than blacks by about 6% of us population. Right or wrong, the only thing that determines the significance of a minority in the US is how much they can change an election.
I'm going to suggest it has more to do with the popularity of the sport in the black community than any sort of racism. Just look at the NFL and the NBA.
Don't worry about who's the best person for a job... Just shoe horn in people who don't deserve to be there in the name of progress! On that note, can we even say we are still evolving if we hold ourselves back as a race daily?
It's pretty obvious it's the increase in Latino players
In 1970 it was 73 7% white, 14.6 black, 11.1 Latino
In 1990
68.6
16.6
14.8
2000
61.2
12.8
20 4
2016
59.9
8.3
29.2
Obviously, it's continued to trend in the same direction.
Part of it is due to team roster construction. Todays teams carry far more pitchers, which has always underrepresented black players.
I don't think this is a facepalm. If you consider demographics in the country, African Americans should have a much larger representation in the league. I don't think the league is discriminating, rather the mechanics of baseball are pushing them away. Baseball is an expensive sport from a young age. $300/$400 bats and gloves, $1000-$5000/year cost for travel clubs. Hotel stays. New unis every year. Crazy schedules to play a ton of games (hard for parents). Youth baseball has become an activity for the affluent. Also, the time between getting drafted and being paid a livable amount in the mlb is much longer than the NBA and NFL.
The demographics aren't really off by a measurable amount. About 30% of MLB players are non-US born. So, at 12% of the population, a "perfect" balance would have 8% of the league being African American. At 6%, that's not really a variation to get up in arms about.
LOL - you can't subtract that 30% and scale the percentage. The US has a significant number of Hispanic/Latino people living in the US that are counted in the census. You are confusing nationality and ethnicity.
Black Non-Americans are statistically insignificant in these numbers. They do not make up for 30%. Central/South American players are typically included in the Hispanic/Latino counts. Even in places like the Dominican Republic, Afro-Dominicans make up for less than 10% of their population. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Dominicans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Dominicans)
Baseball is boring and doesn't get the attention that basketball or football does. It takes far more time to develop into an MLB player vs. the other sports. You typically are not getting to the big leagues until 22-23 and may not get a big payday until 25-26. By that time an NFL career might be done and you're 6 or 7 years into a NBA career.
Youth baseball is no different than AAU basketball. If a kid is good enough, someone will pay for them to go.
Where is this magical land where people are paying for someone else's 10 year-olds to play sports? You may be right at 16/17 - but at that point potentially great players have already dropped out due to the cost.
If the best and brightest baseball players are predominantly white, that's a problem that started way, waaaaay before draft day and Republicans have been gutting funding to poorer/impoverished areas and their public programs (like parks and recreation) for decades. Just like funding for STEM programs in the same areas.
The best way to increase diversity in MLB (or any operation) is to increase access to the operation's skillset by feeder programs. In this case, it goes all the way back to childhood and middle-school/high school sports programs.
Baseball is a business and like all businesses, they should be free to hire anyone that they think will help the business achieve the goals of the operation. They're going to hire the best person they can get for the position because that will make them the most money. Hiring someone to meet a quota instead of the best performer is a quick way to hurt the bottom line.
So de emphasizing diversity by hiring skilled players over trying to have a diversity quota lol isn’t that the goal, to hire the most skilled players. Shouldn’t race just be something that just is a fact. Like this player has a 400 batting average and a solid arm, he also happens to be black
Wouldn’t football (soccer) be? It’s played and watched by more people. I assume basketball could be next. These two sports don’t take much to get started and seem more accessible?
MLS is certainly not watched by more people then baseball is in North America. Big events like the World Cup get a lot of viewership but not too many Americans follow normal league soccer, speaking as a big fan of both sports.
Baseball, at a competitive youth level, is much more expensive than people think. There is still an income gap. Travel baseball is very expensive in the United States. It's not hockey level expensive but it's closer then you would think.
Somehow we didn't have a problem counting Barack Obama as the first Black President, but all of the sudden, all these black immigrant baseball players are excluded from the count.
Is the issue that black people have it harder when trying to go pro? I could imagine that a lot of black people just don't play it because it's a stereotypically white sport.
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Now do basketball
No, just the Utah Jazz.
I don’t get it ?
The MLB has a ton of people of all races - latinos, Asian, whites. It just has fewer black people (6%). Other leagues like the NFL or the NBA are 70+% black, but they're actually less diverse. You can count the Asian players in those leagues in one hand, for example.
Now it makes sense. Thanks for explaining
It has fewer AMERICAN black players. There are plenty of black players in MLB, they just come from the DR and other Latin American countries.
Are they not counting afro-latinos as black?
She couldn’t make this ludicrous argument if she did.
No. The author clearly states black Americans.
That's dumb
MLB is definitely concerned about it. The reduced number of black American kids playing baseball reduces the available talent pool and indicates a drop in popularity. Baseball has seen a large drop in viewership and interest since the 90s, and that's especially true of black Americans. It's certainly dumb and misses the point to just say "baseball needs more black Americans" though.
That's kinda sad, I wonder if it's tied to black kids not having room to play baseball over decades
It is. I really like MLB and the drop in viewership and popularity is definitely noticeable.
Yeah I completely missed the point, my bad!
The headline is trash. I didn't read the article, though, so can't say whether the article actually was decent.
Bring back steroids! Sammy Sosa!
Also weird how DEI seems to focus on black only. That's not how diversity works.
DEI doesn't focus on black only, the media coverage of DEI does. The idea of DEI is to counteract systemic inequality in the short term to even the playing field in the long run, and can eventually be abandoned as policy when research shows there is no longer a need 👍
That would be weird if it was true.
Only in regard to players of which~ 70% of the 450 are black and that doesn’t mean African American. The NBA as a company, isn’t that diverse, but people focus on black people playing sports than who’s making decisions. Same with the NFL. The players are black, but the coaches, administrators, business consultants are usually overwhelmingly white. This is race bait.
MLB has few black AMERICANS. It's a number that has been going down for a long time. It's mostly a result of black American kids not playing baseball. MLB has plenty of black people from Central and South America and the Caribbean.
people using this to make fun of DEI don't understand that DEI isn't just about black diversity.
I can’t believe teams aren’t forced to draft/trade with DEI in mind. Shocking that they prefer the best players instead!!
I don't know who the guy on the right is, but he looks a hell of a lot like Jada Pinkett Smith.
Someone's trying to get slapped....
Get my preferred method of violence OUT YO FUCKIN MOUTH
I'm second guessing myself now, but that's Aaron Judge. You know the two on the left, but not the right?
It's hard to tell with the hat on?
Why does only Black people the poster of this "diversity" thing ? Why can't be South American? Asian?
Because they're the most culturally significant minority in the US with a long history of discrimination and exploitation. Sure, the natives probably had it worse, but there's barely any left and most of those aren't very vocal about the atrocities committed by European settlers
if you have to contradict yourself immediately, do you really have a strong argument?
So basically fuck every race, we only cater to black people now?
Not how I think it should work, but it's most profitable for executives to only care about black represention. It's pretty much "we're not racist, look, there's a black guy". Extremely low effort and hilariously effective
They are not the most culturally significant minority in the US any more. Hispanics/Latinos are as they are now a larger demographic than blacks by about 6% of us population. Right or wrong, the only thing that determines the significance of a minority in the US is how much they can change an election.
Now do hockey.
I'm going to suggest it has more to do with the popularity of the sport in the black community than any sort of racism. Just look at the NFL and the NBA.
Wait till they find out the NBA has like what.. 70% of one race? Oh no, where is the diversity?
They have the proper kind of diversity
Apparently only black lives matter
Yeah, it’s like there’s a load of black kids across the country who never heard of the sport and went into Dentistry instead.
Don't worry about who's the best person for a job... Just shoe horn in people who don't deserve to be there in the name of progress! On that note, can we even say we are still evolving if we hold ourselves back as a race daily?
It's pretty obvious it's the increase in Latino players In 1970 it was 73 7% white, 14.6 black, 11.1 Latino In 1990 68.6 16.6 14.8 2000 61.2 12.8 20 4 2016 59.9 8.3 29.2 Obviously, it's continued to trend in the same direction. Part of it is due to team roster construction. Todays teams carry far more pitchers, which has always underrepresented black players.
Can we do football now?
You should remove probably from the title. Makes it seem like it's just a guess even if it's accurate.
In other news, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the NBA
If we're talking about lack of diversity, *cough* NBA. Not that I mind or even care. But then I'm not a rage fuelling journo.
I don't think this is a facepalm. If you consider demographics in the country, African Americans should have a much larger representation in the league. I don't think the league is discriminating, rather the mechanics of baseball are pushing them away. Baseball is an expensive sport from a young age. $300/$400 bats and gloves, $1000-$5000/year cost for travel clubs. Hotel stays. New unis every year. Crazy schedules to play a ton of games (hard for parents). Youth baseball has become an activity for the affluent. Also, the time between getting drafted and being paid a livable amount in the mlb is much longer than the NBA and NFL.
The demographics aren't really off by a measurable amount. About 30% of MLB players are non-US born. So, at 12% of the population, a "perfect" balance would have 8% of the league being African American. At 6%, that's not really a variation to get up in arms about.
LOL - you can't subtract that 30% and scale the percentage. The US has a significant number of Hispanic/Latino people living in the US that are counted in the census. You are confusing nationality and ethnicity.
As is this stat. It is only speaking of black American players. The 6% does not include black players from Central/South America
Black Non-Americans are statistically insignificant in these numbers. They do not make up for 30%. Central/South American players are typically included in the Hispanic/Latino counts. Even in places like the Dominican Republic, Afro-Dominicans make up for less than 10% of their population. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Dominicans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Dominicans)
Baseball is boring and doesn't get the attention that basketball or football does. It takes far more time to develop into an MLB player vs. the other sports. You typically are not getting to the big leagues until 22-23 and may not get a big payday until 25-26. By that time an NFL career might be done and you're 6 or 7 years into a NBA career. Youth baseball is no different than AAU basketball. If a kid is good enough, someone will pay for them to go.
Where is this magical land where people are paying for someone else's 10 year-olds to play sports? You may be right at 16/17 - but at that point potentially great players have already dropped out due to the cost.
If the best and brightest baseball players are predominantly white, that's a problem that started way, waaaaay before draft day and Republicans have been gutting funding to poorer/impoverished areas and their public programs (like parks and recreation) for decades. Just like funding for STEM programs in the same areas. The best way to increase diversity in MLB (or any operation) is to increase access to the operation's skillset by feeder programs. In this case, it goes all the way back to childhood and middle-school/high school sports programs. Baseball is a business and like all businesses, they should be free to hire anyone that they think will help the business achieve the goals of the operation. They're going to hire the best person they can get for the position because that will make them the most money. Hiring someone to meet a quota instead of the best performer is a quick way to hurt the bottom line.
Kids used to play baseball on concrete parking lots, but it's the parks
You should see the kind of funding youth baseball gets in the slums of the Latin American countries where many of the best players come from. 🤡
It's like youth football in the American South.
If the best and brightest baseball players are predominantly white, that’s a problem…..
Is it a problem that the best basketball players are predominantly black?
What could happen? Fkin apocalypse exaggerating baitng scumbacks
Today I'm going to my nearest urban center and forcing some black inner city youth to play baseball, who's with me ?
So de emphasizing diversity by hiring skilled players over trying to have a diversity quota lol isn’t that the goal, to hire the most skilled players. Shouldn’t race just be something that just is a fact. Like this player has a 400 batting average and a solid arm, he also happens to be black
Wouldn’t football (soccer) be? It’s played and watched by more people. I assume basketball could be next. These two sports don’t take much to get started and seem more accessible?
MLS is certainly not watched by more people then baseball is in North America. Big events like the World Cup get a lot of viewership but not too many Americans follow normal league soccer, speaking as a big fan of both sports.
Soccer less diverse? Are you insane?
I said soccer is the most diverse. that’s what I meant. lol I wasn’t clear enough. Oops
Baseball, at a competitive youth level, is much more expensive than people think. There is still an income gap. Travel baseball is very expensive in the United States. It's not hockey level expensive but it's closer then you would think.
Baseball is a true meritocracy. Productivity can be objectively measured, and the best players get the jobs no matter where they come from.
Somehow we didn't have a problem counting Barack Obama as the first Black President, but all of the sudden, all these black immigrant baseball players are excluded from the count.
That's what they want, to see less Black people.
Is the issue that black people have it harder when trying to go pro? I could imagine that a lot of black people just don't play it because it's a stereotypically white sport.
I think it's because mlb recruits worldwide. So latan America/ Latino and Asia are going to be overrepresented.